Timetoast makes PC Magazine’s “Best Free Software of 2009″ list

I’m honoured to have my Flex/Flash app, Timetoast, rub shoulders with such greats as Google Earth and eBay Desktop in PC Magazine’s “Best Free Software of 2009″ list.

Timetoast is an online tool that allows people to easily create timelines they can then share on their blog or website. It’s a fun app which will certainly be getting some neat revisions in the near future! Here’s a link to the Timetoast timelines listing. If you see any other Flash, Flex, AIR or Rails apps listed, feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to know.

For a nice example of a Timetoast timeline out in the wild, check out the RTÉ 2008 Year in Review feature.

Greenprint also made it onto the list. Greenprint is a great desktop application that saves ink and trees at the same time by allowing you to remove blank pages and unnecessary advertising from your print jobs. They recently added a Mac version which is great news for all you eco-conscious Mac users.

Presenting Rails for Flash at LFPUG

As usual, the London Flash Platform User Group event will be held on the last Thursday of the month; that’s this Thursday, October the 30th.

First up this month are the guys at Unit9, they’ll be taking you through their processes and how they keep everyone in the company communicating effectively for maximum result.

I will be following up with a presentation on Ruby on Rails and Flash; taking you through the steps needed to create a REST-ful Rails application that is read and writeable through a Flash Front end. This will give you an introduction to Ruby on Rails and how this powerful web application framework can make it ridiculously easy for you to kick-start your next, or first, database powered Flash application.

The LFPUG will be held at it’s usual location, Cosmobar on Clerkenwell Road (54-56) and the presentations start at 19:00. For more information on the sessions, and indeed on how to get there, see the official LFPUG site.

See you there!

Timetoast featured on 37Signals product blog

Hurrah! My one-man web app, Timetoast, just got featured over on the 37Signals product blog. Their book ‘Getting Real‘ was a great guide while building my web app and I highly suggest you check it out before you start building your own!

Timetoast is a Flash / Flex based app that easily allows people to create and share interactive timelines on the web.

And the widget winner is… Ernesto!

I just saw that my friend and ex-colleague Ernesto Quezada won The BIG Widget Challenge with a particularly innovative and interesting Flash widget, especially with recent earthquake in Japan.

The widget he created to win the comp and take home 1000 smackeroonies shows recent earthquakes overlayed onto Google Maps, all nicely animated in Flash. You can check out the competition winner page at WidgetCon.

Congratulations Ernesto! I guess I’ll have to buy you a beer at the next LFPUG!

Embedding Flash into a Rails application

I just came across a new plugin that lets you embed Adobe Flash content into a Ruby on Rails based application with minimal fuss. It is based on the OpenLaszlo view helper and uses the much loved, and frankly indispensable, JavaScript based swfObject method.

If your Spanish Italian is up to it, you can check out the original Lipsiasoft project page. If on the other hand, like me, you have a bit of trouble getting your Spanish Italian on, you can always turn to AgileWebdevelopment.com who have an English page on the plugin over at: http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/flashobject.

Cheers to Lipsiasoft for making our lives even easier!

No Flash for the Apple iPhone?

MacRumors is currently running an article claiming there will be no Adobe Flash support for the Apple iPhone. You can find the full article here.

It was revealed yesterday at the WWDC, the Apple Developer conference, that the iPhone would include “support for Web 2.0 applications.” I guess we will just have to wait and see if Apple’s definition of “Web 2.0 applications” includes HTML and JavaScript, but not Flash.

Digg Flash/Apollo Contest

Digg, the social news network, has released a new Flash API and launched a contest to go with it.

Digg are looking for “the most creative and dynamic Flash visualizations and applications that utilize the Digg API.” Your creation can be either an Apollo or a Flash application. The contest deadline is on the 16th of May.

Find more info over on the contest page, or check out the Digg API.

NOTE: Unfortunately the contest is only open to US residents.

CS3 Video Workshop

I just saw that Adobe have put up a great new learning resource for the CS3 suite; the Creative Suite 3 Video Workshop. You can find it in the design center section on the Adobe website, and there are already quite a few videos available.

Go check out the CS3 Video Workshop now.

CS3 says ‘ello and good morning

Adobe have updated their site with the new Creative Suite 3 tools, head over now for a peek at all the new features!
The launch site looks pretty sweet and is mainly focusing on the integration between the different tools.

I think I’ll be holding out till July to get my hands on the Production Suite though. It looks like I should have a lot more time to play around with the new tools around then.

I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of guys come out of the woodwork and really start getting into ActionScript 3 with Flash CS3. A lot of devs have moved to macs over the last year (myself included; just go to any random conference to witness this phenomenon) so I imagine many haven’t played as much with ActionScript 3 as they would like. With Flash Player penetration now so high, this is going to be an amazing release as people adopt the new tools faster than ever before.

Apollo lifts off

The Apollo SDK is now available for download on Adobe labs.
I’ve had a quick look at some of the example Apollo applications (they’re tucked away a bit) and amazingly, I’ve already been able to use one at work this morning: the Pixel Perfect example.

I’ve also been on the lookout for a nice RSS reader as I haven’t been able to find a suitable Windows alternative for Vienna, my RSS reader of choice on Mac. I’ll be giving the Fresh RSS reader a go over the next couple of days.